Walter Stiles 
74 
observations are, however, not numerous, and under the circum¬ 
stances it would be unwise to draw too far reaching generalisations 
from them. Indeed, no suggestion of a general rule is apparent from 
these results. Thus, with carrot the kations of most of the chlorides 
examined were absorbed to a somewhat greater extent than the 
chlorion in each case, while with beetroot this difference is very much 
emphasised in the case of calcium chloride, about seven times as 
much calcium ion being absorbed as chlorion in the same time. On 
the other hand carrot absorbed more chlorion than kation from a 
solution of magnesium chloride (cf. Table XXXI), and slightly more 
nitrate than potassium from a solution of potassium nitrate. 
That this unequal absorption of ions is a property of living cells 
and not of dead tissue is shown by Meurer’s results with living and 
dead carrot tissue immersed in solutions of magnesium chloride 
(Table XXXI). Whereas with living tissue about 32 per cent, more 
anion was absorbed than kation during four days, with dead tissue 
equivalent quantities of the two ions were absorbed. 
Table XXXI 
Absorption of the Ions of Magnesium Chloride 
by Dead and Living 
Carrot 
Concentration 
State 
Duration of 
Relative absorption by 
of 
of 
absorption 
( 
solution 
tissue 
in days 
Kation 
Anion 
NJ 24 
Living 
2 
0-327 
0-336 
, , 
,, 
4 
0-286 
0-377 
N /22 
Dead 
2 
0-958 
0-950 
,, 
,, 
4 
Q ’953 
o -953 
N /95 
Living 
, 2 
0-563 
o -774 
,, 
,, 
4 
o -577 
0-895 
N/ 105 
Dead 
2 
HlpPI 
0-950 
,, 
,, 
4 
0-869 
Unequal absorption of ions by whole plants. The unequal absorption 
of ions by Cucurbita Pepo was investigated by Pantanelli and Sella 
(1909). The plants were grown as in water-culture, 16 to 21 indi¬ 
viduals being placed in each vessel. After the roots had been 
surrounded by conductivity water for two days, the plants were 
transferred to the experimental solutions for a definite number of 
days, after which time the dry weights of roots and shoots were 
determined and the external solution analysed for both ions of the 
experimental salts. The results obtained are summarised in Table 
XXXII. 
